


For the Damaged

by officialsarahjay



Series: When We Were Done Dying [2]
Category: Final Fantasy X
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-24 21:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20021125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/officialsarahjay/pseuds/officialsarahjay
Summary: A flashback/one shot set within the universe of When We Were Done Dying. Takes place at some point before the conclusion of Final Fantasy X.All Rikku needs to do is look up.





	For the Damaged

The Calm Lands

_\- five years ago -_

The end was coming.

After all, every story must come to an end.

It had been a wild race to the finish, Rikku thought as she hugged her knees to her chest. Fiends had been wrangled, chocobos had been tamed, butterflies had been chased – all silly, stupid things that had to be done in the name of seven very powerful weapons that would _maybe_ grant them an ice cube’s chance in hell of securing a happy ending.

She turned her face upward to the impossibly clear night sky. She sighed.

Fuck a happy ending. Happy for who, exactly?

Because Auron had a one-way ticket to the Farplane. How was that a happy ending?

Once Sin was defeated and once their story concluded, Auron was going to disappear. Rikku knew it, and Auron knew Rikku knew it, and Rikku was having an extraordinarily difficult time of Dealing With ItTM. So she selfishly stole every moment alone with him that she could, because she selfishly wanted to keep him all to herself, perhaps locked away from summoners and from the Farplane so that he would never _ha_ _ve_ to leave.

And she plotted. She plotted wild plots to keep him. Maybe he could just STAY, she would say. No, he said with no additional explanation. Maybe she could die and become unsent herself, she would say. _Hell_ no, he said with no room to argue.

Then he would kiss her and tell her she was just a silly girl with a silly crush and that it was all going to be okay.

Yeah, so maybe _he_ wrote it off as a silly crush, because clearly _he_ never knew the all-consuming power that was young love, she thought bitterly. And to make matters worse, she just couldn’t seem to convince him that what she felt was heady and real and she was never _ever_ going to get over it.

It was _not_ going to be okay.

“There you are. It’s late. You should be asleep.”

“I can’t sleep,” Rikku mumbled, her tone flat. “Just…why can’t you stay? I know you can. I mean, haven’t we crossed paths with unsent who have stayed for decades? For centuries?” She scoffed. “You. You can stay.”

To her left, Auron sat down in the tall green grass before falling back with a gentle _thwumpf_. He crossed his arms behind his head and bent one leg, his foot pressed flat into the earth.

“It would be too dangerous,” he finally said.

“How?”

“Rikku,” he sighed. He shook free his right hand from behind his head and reached up to trace his fingers slowly up and down her back, right between her shoulder blades. “Rikku, if I stay…I’m afraid that – no, I _know_ that over time I will grow to resent that you are alive and I am…not. And that resentment will grow into contempt. What feelings I have for you won’t be enough to hold back the tide. Then I’ll become my worst fear: I would be a threat to you.”

“I don’t believe you,” Rikku said defiantly.

“But it’s the nature of...of what I am,” he said carefully. “Rikku, I can’t stay. As much as I would like to, I can’t stay.”

“But the others…the other unsent…”

“They walk alone for this very reason.”

Rikku groaned. She continued to stare up at the stars until her eyes burned, until her vision blurred, until she could no longer blink back the tears that threatened to escape from the corners of her eyes. She grit her teeth as her shoulders began to shake from the restrained sobs she failed to choke down.

She lowered her head and wiped back her tears with the back of her hands. But the more she wiped back, the more that sprang up to replace them until she completely dissolved.

“This is what I meant when I said I didn’t want to be the one who breaks your heart,” Auron sighed. He pushed himself up and gently pulled Rikku close to him, until her back was pressed flat against his chest. He circled his arms around her, just under her ribcage, and gave her a squeeze. “And I was the idiot that decided to entertain your little crush.”

“IT’S NOT A – ”

“Look at the stars,” he interrupted as he rest his chin against her shoulder.

“Why?”

“Just look at the stars.”

Rikku rubbed her face and looked back up. From behind her tears, the blanket of stars blurred and swam even brighter against the inky backdrop.

“What about them?”

“Pick one.”

She wiped her eyes and carefully studied the sky. After a moment, she pointed up at one especially bright star, shining louder than the rest amongst a cloud of stardust.

“That one,” she said, her voice trembling. Auron nodded against her shoulder.

“When this is over, that’s where I’ll go. This way, if you feel alone, all you need to do is look up.”

Rikku swallowed back the lump in her throat.

“Not to the Farplane?”

He shook his head.

“Can you do it?”

“How hard can it be?”

Rikku sniffled. It was bullshit. It was absolute bullshit. The dead typically met one of two fates: as happy little pyreflies flittering along here and there in the Farplane, or as angry little pyreflies taking the shape of fiends and roaming the surface of Spira. None of those little pyreflies became stars.

But. Even though it was bullshit, it was still without question the most romantic bullshit Rikku had ever heard.

She was going to ugly cry. Or at least, cry uglier than she was presently.

Auron pressed a lingering kiss to her neck before shaking her lightly.

“Come on, we need to get back before someone notices,” he warned.

“Just tell them you woke up to take a piss and found out I went missing, so you went to find me.”

Auron sighed.

“Rikku…you know, no. That works. Let’s go.”

He stood up and brushed the grass from his slacks before extending his hand to Rikku.

“C’mon,” he prompted.

Rikku hesitated for a moment before taking Auron’s hand, allowing him to help pull her up. She quickly fell in lockstep next to him, and sneakily slipped her hand into his. He responded by giving it a comforting squeeze.

“Hey Auron?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I stay with you tonight?”

Auron came to a stop. He turned to Rikku and placed both hands flat on her upper arms, squeezing lightly.

“I don’t think…” he began before halting. He frowned.

Rikku. Poor Rikku. She looked so. damn. sad.

“It’s just we don’t have a whole lot of time left and I want to spend it with you,” Rikku said quietly as she lowered her gaze to her shoes. “And sleeping next to you, it makes me feel safe, you know?”

Auron pulled Rikku in close before kissing her forehead.

“Sure,” he said gently.

And as he began the slow trudge back toward Rin’s gaudy Travel Agency with its bright colors and gauche décor, Rikku stopped to look back up at the night’s sky, at the one especially bright star shining louder than the rest amongst a cloud of stardust.

All she had to do was look up.


End file.
